Tenchi Muyo! No Need for America!
by Kinake Hitashi
Summary: Ryoko and Tenchi are dating and the gang (or what's left of them) is headed to America!


No Need for America!

Tenchi Muyo!

No Need for America!

A fanfic by Oscar Ramos, J.r.

Disclaimer:

I do not own any of these characters, AIC and Pioneer do, so don't press a lawsuit, because I'm too poor to pay attention.

  


Chapter One

The Masaki residence had emptied out gradually over the years following Kagato's death, and all that remained were Tenchi, Ryoko, and Washu. The other girls had gone about their business.

Aeka had gone back to Jurai to claim the throne, succeeding her father. Sasami, who dearly loved the Earth, moved into a neighboring town of the countryside that the Masakis called home.

Kyone and Mihoshi went back to Galaxy Police headquarters. They were welcomed warmly by their peers and superiors. A promotion and raises were gifts for helping to defeat the evil tyrant.

"Tenchi!" came a whining voice from the house, "Tenchi, where are you?" It belonged to Ryoko, who had finally won our hero's heart. Aeka had realized it after their brief outing that night, but she couldn't bring herself to accept it for the longest time. She had moved on, though, married a valiant Jurain Knight, and is Queen of Jurai.

"Tenchi!!!" she wailed as she sat, looking pathetic. She had found the door that held her love and was clawing at it, as she had done so many times before. Inside…

Tenchi looked at his father, Noboyuki, in disbelief. The idea was totally absurd.

"Father, how can you ask me this?! I have no say in what goes on here." said a rather disgruntled and sleepy Tenchi.

"I know that you think it may be a little outrageous, but…" he was cut of by his son.

" 'But' nothing, Dad! I don't see why you want to do this. It's totally, absolutely, and positively inconceivable."

"It'll make me more money, Tenchi. You know our funds are slipping, and it won't be long before we go broke. Please, go ask the girls."

"Alright, Father. I'll go ask them, but what about Grandfather? What does he think of the whole thing?" he interrogated his father very carefully, looking for any loopholes or "leaks in the wall," so to speak.

"Oh, he's looking very forward to starting a Shinto shrine in America."

With that, Tenchi slid the door open to have Ryoko fall on top of him.

"Oh, Tenchi! I've been looking all over for you! How come you took so long to answer me?" she cried, biting her top lip, tears forming in her eyes.

"Come downstairs, and bring Washu. I need to talk to you both."

All three of them were down in the living room. Washu was dressed in her pink pajamas, her hair up in the "crab" style. Ryoko was wearing her favorite dress, the blue and yellow one with the tail on it. They both sensed the troubled tone in Tenchi Masaki's voice.

"I… um, that is Father… uh…" he trailed off, trying to think of how to start with the news.

_Mother, he seems tense. What do you suppose could be troubling him?_ Ryoko sent a message through her mind to her maternal figure.

_I'm not sure, but it seems to have him pretty nervous. It seems that Honorable Father Noboyuki has told him something very upsetting._ , came the super-genius's answer. She stared hard at the young man, trying to figure out what he was having so much trouble with, until she finally got annoyed.

"Spit it OUT, already!" she shouted. Tenchi got "the sweat drop" on his head as he reacted to the redhead's temper.

"Father wants us all to move to America, because he has the chance to get transferred there, and it would make him more money. He told me that he wouldn't go without us, and he had a look of deep concern and plead. I told him that I didn't mind, as long as you two went…" he put an emphasis on the you, looking straight at his once-admirer-now-girlfriend, blushing when he noticed that she was staring back.

"Oh, I'd go anywhere with you, my Tenchi! I'd go to the stars and beyond… oh wait, I've done it already… how many times…" she started to point to her fingers and count softly, taking off her socks so that she could also utilize her toes.

"I don't see why not," Washu said, shrugging her shoulders, "it would help with my research, and I guess…" she saw the look in Tenchi's eyes, "… I guess… I could… maybe… squeeze in a little fun… here and… there."

"Thank you, girls." he said softly, and then jumped up, raising his fist in the air, startling both the girls. "Father will be so happy! I'd better go tell him!" he ran off upstairs, excited at the fact that, more than his father's happiness, his sweetheart's consent.

"Miya," came a soft sound from around the kitchen doorway. A small animal came across the floor. It looked like a cross between an earth cat and an earth rabbit.

"Ryo-Ohki! Oh, baby, I forgot about you!" Ryoko ran to the cabbit and hugged him close. The small animal was devastated by Sasami's leaving, and Ryoko had been giving her all the attention she could. She hopped up on Ryoko's head, meowing happily. "Do you want to go to America?"

"Miya!" cried the small cabbit, obviously loving the idea. He hopped down and ran to his room, seemingly to go pack. She came back a few moments later with a basket full of carrots.

"Oh, sweetheart," the ex-pirate went over to the organic spaceship, "you can't take all those with you. They won't fit on the plane." Washu stared at her daughter, struggling not to laugh at her offspring's recently acquired maternal actions.

_She seems so much like a mother to little Ryo-Ohki, and why shouldn't she? She's had no one to care about, or who cares about her, until that night, two years ago,_ thought the scientist, _She reminds me of myself, when I had a child. It's a good thing that she will never have to go through to pain that I did._

Ryoko sat in her room, looking at all the drawers and closets. She was having a hard time deciding what to pack. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. She made a sign for the visitor to come in.

"Ryoko?" came a familiar voice.

"Tenchi?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm packing for the trip to America, Silly." she told him, pushing his chest with her finger. "I'm just having a little trouble deciding what to take."

"Well, you'll have a lot of time to think, because we're not leaving for a few months. Father said that we have to learn how to speak English before we can really move." This answer seemed to hurt her, and Tenchi felt a tug at his heart. _Oh, man, I'd better tell her something to cheer her up…_ "Say, why don't we go catch a movie together?"

Ryoko's eyes lit up instantly. "Really? Ok, there's this one that I wanted to see real bad!" She jumped of the bed, and, grabbing Tenchi's wrist, dragged him into the wall. Her head appeared from the other side. "Oops, sorry! Forgot you couldn't faze through solid objects. Now hurry, or we'll miss it!"

As soon as Tenchi was out of the bedroom, she grabbed his wrist again and teleported to the theatre. He started to dig through his pockets.

"Geez, Ryoko, you could've at least let me get my wallet…" came his half-hearted angry remark. He should've known better. His protégé had always had a problem of getting ahead of herself and everyone else.

"I'm sorry…" the look she gave him pierced his heart for the second time that day, "I was just so excited about the movie…" She looked as though she was about to cry.

He kissed her forehead and rubbed his hand through her cyan-colored hair. "It's ok, you can just teleport back home and grab it for me. It's on my dresser." She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. _She does that to me all the time, _he said to himself, _and it drives me crazy._ He waited for a few minutes after she had disappeared. She came back, wallet in hand.

Despite his trust in her, he couldn't shake the habit of checking to make sure that all his money was in there. Before his date could notice, he had finished counting and was pulling out the money needed to buy tickets.

"Hello, welcome to Hitashi Theatre, can I help you?" the woman at the box office greeted them with a smile.

"Two, please." She handed him the tickets, and he gave one to Ryoko. They went inside the lobby.

"Tenchi, I want some popcorn! A trip to the movies isn't complete without popcorn!" Before he could answer, she was already dragging him to the concession stand. He bought the popcorn and some drinks, all the while telling Ryoko that she was going to make him broke.

"Ha ha ha… you're silly!" she said, poking his nose with her left forefinger. She kissed the tip of his nose and dashed off to the ticket taker.

He trailed her, handing the ticket to the young boy at the stand. He didn't bother to take the stub.

Diving into the dark theatre, he saw a slender hand waving at him. He knew who it was by the sparkle of the gem on her wrist. When he got to the aisle she was in, she motioned for him to sit in the seat she had saved for him. He obediently sat in the chair, taken aback by the way it reclined. He looked back, embarrassed, to make sure that he hadn't hit anybody.

"Are you ok? You didn't hurt yourself, did you?" he could sense the worry in Ryoko's voice.

"Yeah… I just haven't been to this theatre. I usually go to the one downtown. The seats stay stationary there." He pulled himself up and placed his back carefully on that of the chair. He felt a warm sensation coming over his hand.

When he turned, he saw his love's hand wrapped around his own. _She really does love me, _he said to no one, _Even if it's just us two, she makes every moment together last. I guess that's why I chose her…_

Just as he said that, Aeka flashed through his mind. He remembered the look on her face when he had told her. She about broke in two. He could literally see her cracking like glass. After she had thoroughly soaked up the information, she swept herself up and walked out without a word. As he had walked past her room, he could hear sobs…

He snapped back to reality when he heard Ryoko calling to him.

"Tenchi, you're going to miss the previews! They're the best part of the movie. Besides, what if we want to do this again sometime?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ryoko. I was just thinking of how things might have been without you. Or any of the rest of you girls for that matter. I thought that I had a good life, but I never really knew how boring it was." He felt her lips on his cheek.

"That's sweet." she purred softly into his ear. Then she flung herself back into her seat and started to inhale the popcorn. Two minutes later, she was asking for more. Tenchi looked at the empty bag in wonder.

_Where does she keep it all?_

Back at the house, Washu had already mastered the English language. It was simple. All she had to do was assimilate the data directly into her memory. The whole process took about three minutes.

Yosho, or Katsuhito (he preferred his Earthen name), was sitting on the sofa, watching a video on how to speak proper English. He stumbled a couple times, but the tape was very helpful. He now had an English vocabulary of 300+ words.

Noboyuki was also training in the ways of the Americans. He trounced out of his room to showcase his new "American" outfit to his father. Katsuhito nearly had a heart attack when he saw his only son.

Noboyuki was dressed in a tie-dye shirt, a brown leather headband, bell-bottom jeans, and had pony-beads and peace sign necklaces around his neck. His eyes were hidden from view by a pair of sunglasses.

"So, Father," he smiled and said proudly, "what do you think of my new wardrobe?"

"I believe it would be rather fitting for over there," his son smiled wider, "if it were thirty years ago."

The second-oldest generation of the Masaki family hung his head, feeling put down by his father's words. He hoped that _his_ son was doing better than he was…

"Oh, Tenchi, that was fun!" Ryoko flew into Tenchi's waiting arms. He spun her around a few times and put her back down. It was still midday, and neither of them wanted to go home.

"So, what do you want to do now? We could go to the ice cream parlor, or maybe down to the docks…" he was cut short by Ryoko's finger, which was placed upon his lips.

"I have a better idea." she smiled fiendishly, as she had a habit of doing when she was planning something, "Your grandfather _did_ say he wanted us to learn English, right?" Tenchi nodded in agreement. "Sooooo… I thought that we could go do some karaoke!" She bounced up and down like a child who was just told that she could pick up any one bag of candy she could want in the whole store.

"Alright, let's go. But I don't see how this will help us learn English." Tenchi said, confused.

"You'll see…" she trailed off, leaving a shroud of mystery in her wake.

As they entered the music store, they were greeted by a friendly wave. Ryoko gave an enthusiastic wave back and kindly asked that the karaoke room be set up with the best English songs in the store.

"Tenchi, pay the lady." Before he could object, she was already halfway there.

As they sat in the booth, the couple was given a list of songs. Ryoko was bending over with her face to the screen, scrolling down with her fingers. When she stood back up, she slammed a microphone into Tenchi's hand and told him to brace himself. The song started, five minutes later, they were waiting for their score. The counter showed: 18/100.

"Ooh, why those cheating…" the feminine persuasion of them was getting angry, veins showing in her forehead. Her escort was trying to calm him down.

"Aah, Ryoko, watch what you're doing! Remember, this is only our first time! Please don't…" before he could finish, the small booth blew up in a fiery cloud of electronics and wood.

"Sorry about that…" Tenchi said shyly to the girl at the counter, "If you want to, you can bill it to my dad, Noboyuki Masaki. He'll kill me for it, though. Tell him I'll pay him back in full from what was left after I finished college…"

"Oh, don't worry about it," the clerk said, "It's not the first time someone has blown that up because of their score! And, believe me, it won't be the last!" With a smile on her face, she politely waved them off. "By the way, sir, your hair is on fire!" she called out to him.

Tenchi looked up, and, sure enough, his hair was on fire. He began to run around until he felt no solid ground under his feet. He glanced downward and found that he had run over the fountain's ledge at the middle of the shopping plaza. He turned his head back up, a sweat drop forming, shrugged his shoulders, and fell in.

"Well, I see your finally back, Tenchi." Katsuhito sniffed the air as his grandson stepped into the room, "Do you smell something burning?"

"That's my hair, Grandpa. Ryoko blew up the karaoke booth, again…" he explained with a hint of exhaustion in his voice. "I tried to get her to stop, but she wouldn't listen. It's a good thing that I'm used to this, or I'd be staying home. I'm going to bed now."

"But it's only five-thirty. You still haven't eaten dinner. Come down and share a night with your family." came that serene voice, the voice of an experienced warrior.

Washu was already at the table when the pair came downstairs. She had changed dramatically over the years, too. She found herself spending more time out of the lab and more time with the Masakis. She hadn't really noticed her growing attraction, but she, like her daughter, had found people that care for her, and whom she cared about.

Dinner was a noisy one, with talk about the days of each individual. There was a great deal of laughter about Tenchi and Ryoko's date, especially the part about the karaoke. Tenchi was the only one not laughing at that.

The rest of the night afterwards was spent watching videos and movies from America, and everyone favored the one cartoon about this boy and five girls, all trying to win his heart…


End file.
